Whether or not you can carry a tune, music is something that unites us all. It doesn’t matter if you are a Top 40 friend, a hip hop fan or a lover of classical music; the fact that a melody can take each of us to another place and makes us feel deeply is universal. Often, music will play a significant role in our lives. I know I have a tendency to benchmark certain seasons with a song, or an era with my obsession over a particular band. When I hear these tunes again, I am taken back to those moments. That being said there are some moments in life that we all experience- and music is always a significant part of them. Here are five moments music changed (or will change…I’m being dramatic, okay?) your life.

The day you first heard music. No, I’m not talking about the moment you were born or when you were given the ability to hear, I’m referring to the moment you first heard a melody, felt the beat and thought, “Wow. I like that. That gets me. That is part of my being.” Some will pinpoint this moment from an early age; it may have been when you were sung a lullaby as a baby, or as you listened to the radio on the way to school as a kid. When people say, “I heard the Beatles, and that’s when I knew I wanted to be a singer,” or, “I grew up listening to my mom’s gospel collection,” they are highlighting the moment music entered their world and changed them forever.

The day you first made music.: While there are some people who should clearly never make music in public (you need only watch the auditions on X Factor to know this), we all can make music. Granted, some people are better at this than others. But we can all make noise, sing a tune, and clap to a song. This starts early for all of us and there are probably old photos of you as a toddler dancing in front of a TV or evidence of the concerts you put together for every single dinner guest  (sorry mom and dad). Writers, singers, and musicians can often recall the moment they first picked up a guitar, sang in church choir or wrote a song about heartbreak that propelled them forward in their career.

The day you fell in love. There is a reason newlyweds have a ‘first dance’ and choose their wedding setlist so diligently: it’s because the music defines them. It represents the moment we meet a person, the emotions we feel, the love that grows and the promise of something flourishing in the future. While music is for everyone, a special song will separate two people from the world. When we move past the songs written about lust and booty, we all discover the gems that seem to communicate the sanctity of love. You need only see a couple dancing together at their 50th wedding anniversary to know there is something special in their song.

The day you said goodbye. The end of a relationship will always carry a tune. It might be melancholy, bittersweet or victorious. In these moments, music seems to be the only thing capable of expressing our heartbreak When we say goodbye to a loved one and they pass away, the moment also carries a melody. Every life carries a song, and when we say goodbye to people we play it to remember them.

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The day you realized the world was bigger than you. It sounds like a cliché moment, of course, the world is bigger than us. Yet there is a moment when we sense we are made for something more. Some call it a purpose, finding your destiny or realizing what you were called to give to the world. Often, this moment will have a corresponding song or an album that seems to reiterate every emotion you are feeling. This moment occurred for me when I moved half way around the world. I would listen to Switchfoot’s discography repeatedly to make some sense of my life. Yours might have been the moment your child was born or the day someone said they believed in you.